Scene analysis using visual information is an active research field. For constrained environments with a restricted number of objects, successful applications such as face recognition have been reported. However, in natural environments the success of scene analysis using purely visual information from monocular or stereo camera systems has been limited. Often additional sensors have been added, such as radar or infrared sensors, to support and ease the processing done by the vision system. A system using multimodal integration in a ubiquitous computing environment is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0149803A1, entitled System and Process for Controlling Electronic Components in a Ubiquitous Computing Environment Using Multimodal Integration, filed on May 31, 2002, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Pervasive Computing relates to devices having processing and communication capabilities, but which may not be considered traditional computers. In pervasive and ubiquitous computing environments, one or more elements or objects in the environment transmit some information, which can either be used by any of the other objects and/or by a new object entering the room. An example is a mobile computer that is taken into such a computing environment and is automatically able to detect and connect to printers and networks that are available. However, such small computing devices are not restricted to technological objects, they can easily be used in clothing or attached to objects of every day usage. Pervasive computing devices are described in GB 2347834A, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
What is needed is a method and system for improving the capabilities of a computing device to gather information on objects in its environment.